


A Shadow of a Victor

by apocalypseGeneticist



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-11
Updated: 2012-04-11
Packaged: 2017-11-03 11:59:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/381119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocalypseGeneticist/pseuds/apocalypseGeneticist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Animorphs/Hunger Games AU<br/>Rachel, after seeing the glory of Jake's victory at his Hunger Games, volunteers the very next year, only to find out she is in far over her head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Shadow of a Victor

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Blood of a Brother, Blood of a Victor.](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/7810) by Brittany Slawson. 



My name is Rachel Berenson. I don't know why I'm telling you this, since you must know my name by now. I, along with my fellow tributes, have become famous, at least for a short time. My cousin, Jake, was in the Games last year. He volunteered to avenge his brother, Tom. I've never seen a person transform in such a captivating and terrifying way. Jake walked up to the stage in District 4 with this incredible air about him. He was overflowing with this anger, this hunger for vengeance. He was small- it wasn't his year to volunteer for the Games, not for another two years- and he looked scared. But Jake has always been able to channel his fear. He takes his fear and wraps it up and uses it to push himself further.

It had been years since District 4 had a leader of the Careers, when Jake stepped up. But when he walked out onto the Victors' stage, it was all he could do not to cry. He looked like a child, even more shockingly than when he was in the arena, surrounded by Careers two and three years his senior. Later that year, when he was on his Victory Tour, he pulled me aside behind the stage in District 3 to talk to me.

"Rachel."

"Jake."

"Rachel, don't give me that. I know that look. Don't volunteer."

I put on my most innocent face, mocking him. "Why ever would I volunteer, dear cousin?"

"I'm serious, Rachel. You don't know what it's like in the arena. You think you do from all of the Games you've seen on TV, but it's different. I was lucky, I was a Career. I doubt you'd have the same privilege."

He's reminding me that I live in District 3, as if I could ever forget. I know that our district is rich, so why are our people so starkly poor in comparison? I know what it would mean for me in a Games as well: terrible Career odds (even if i did get in, I would be first on the chopping block), poor sponsors, and discrimination amongst the Gamemakers.

Despite all of this, I'm still determined to win a Hunger Games, and Jake can see that in my eyes. He yells at me to listen to him, he tries negotiating with me, he even tries pleading. Nothing weakens my resolve. I'm going to volunteer to be a tribute in the next Hunger Games.

  


\--

  


Two weeks after the reaping, I've been dolled up in an incredible dress that glows and hums like the all of the fancy technology my district makes for the Capitol. As Caesar Flickerman talks to the girl from District 2, I realize how right Jake was. I don't belong here. Just like this dress, just like the hi-tech products we make in District 3, I am a non-renewable resource, good for entertainment until it is time to be thrown away. I panic. This is a new feeling to me, panic. I've known fear and uncertainty and I've even thought that the breath I was taking was going to be my last. But I've never felt panic. I begin to be so enclosed in my panic that I barely notice when Caesar has turned to me. I try my best to regain my composure, and tune back in to the conversation to hear Caesar say "...your cousin's footsteps?"

"Oh, yes," I respond, hastily putting a smile on my face that couldn't look anything more than pained, "When he was in the Games, it just looked like so much fun. How could I turn that down?" My smile started to feel a bit more natural on my lips. Why did this look so easy for Jake? Why was it so easy for him to play the crowd?

Because he was doing this out of passion. You're doing this out of boredom.

After an otherwise uneventful interview, the tributes went to their quarters to prepare for the Games. In a few short weeks, there would only be one of us left standing and for the first time since I volunteered, I didn't know if it was going to be me or not.


End file.
